The Bees Arrived!

 Hi everyone. Happy weekend to you.

This past Thursday my 2 boxes of bees arrived. Let me describe that adventure for you today. FYI, this is a longish post.

Sadly my original hive didn't make it through last winter, but I'm still not exactly sure why. The best I can figure out is that it was either too cold and my hive just didn't have enough bees to maintain hive heat (to withstand that cold), or it might have been  because the hive had been weakened by a bee disease and therefore couldn't make it through the  trials of winter survival. There was still plenty of food in the hive, and my top moisture box and pad were dry.  When I opened up the hive most of the bees were clustered together in the middle, almost as though they were flash frozen in place. We did have more than the usual very cold days this winter. I'm still trying to figure out what killed them though so hopefully I can have better luck in the future, and it is  still sad  to even think about all those poor bees.

I hadn't given up on bees though. I had already ordered one box of  bees for a second hive before I knew whether my bees survived the winter. After realizing I had lost my bees, I ordered a second box. I'm not planning on having a bee farm, but I am interested in a couple of hobby hives.

Of course, nothing is ever straightforward. Wednesday night I had a message on my phone that my package was damaged and that my bees were being scooped up and returned to their package in the Manchester, NH post office facility they had to go through before being shipped to my town. This didn't sound good.

Then on Thursday I had a 7 AM phone call from my local post office. I expected this, but as the woman explained, there was some damage to the box and not all of the bees were contained. I took a drive over to assess.  My 2 boxes of bees (they were connected to make 1 package) had bees on the inside and bees on the outside. The seal at the top of the boxes hadn't been damaged, but obviously some of the screening around the boxes had been torn so some bees had gotten out.

This is the top of my boxes.  On the far left you see some of the board that was holding the 2 boxes together. On both of these boxes you see the small board that looks like a mini shingle and that covers the entrance into the boxes. These boards were securely stapled in. On one of these boards you can see the big red "this side up" sticker across it.  And if you look carefully, you  can see some bees outside of the box. 

In this above photo that I took once I got home, you can see how many bees were actually outside of one of the containers. You can tell the box is still sealed if you look at the top of the photo and see that the board is still attached over the entrance.

The lady at the post office wasn't very happy with the way the bees had been delivered from Manchester. Basically there was a screen thrown over the box, much like you might throw a towel over something. At night, the bees on the outside were clinging to the box with their particular queen, but since the day was beginning and sun was coming up, the bees would be going out in search of pollen because that's what bees do.

I didn't bring any equipment with me, so I went home to get my suit, smoker and tools. Luckily the PO is only about 2 miles from my house. Plus I needed a minute to figure out what to do because I didn't want bees flying around my car as I drove them home. I was likely to get stung, and maybe even get in an accident which as you can guess, would not be good for many reasons.

I had the idea that if I got a large piece of screen and could find my husband's staple gun (which luckily was an easy find as he'd been using it in the spare bedroom project), I could first smoke the bees, then wrap the shipment completely in some screen and staple it all closed.

And that worked.  The lady and another postal employee in the room with me were quite impressed. I must say I was pretty impressed I came up with that idea also because for a while I wasn't sure what to do.

The first photo in this post is how I wrapped my bees. I took that photo in the back of my car.

I also kept thinking about my poor bees. I didn't know, and still don't know, how many actually escaped and didn't find their way back to the outside of the box. According to the women at my local PO, Manchester had called in a bee keeper to help out with this situation. I can imagine what it was like there with bees flying about.

Once I got my bees home, I used more smoke to calm them (it covers their attack pheromone response)  and then installed them in the hive. I couldn't take as many photos as I would have as I was the only one home (besides Mr. Pete who wasn't coming any place near me nor the bees/ Maddie was at doggie daycare that day), but let me show you some of those  photos to explain the process of installing bees.

In this photo above you can see their shipping box. I have taken off that small mini-shingle of wood that allows bees to be put in or taken out. There is a circular hole in the top of the shipping box  (under the mini-shingle) that contained a tin can that had some bee food (sugar water) in it. I  had to remove the can so the bees remaining in the shipping box could get out.  You can see that circular hole where the can was as there's some bees around it.

The queen and a couple of drones were in  a tiny little box that was sealed. (No photos, sorry.) That little box gets put into the hive, and they should be able to eat their way out of it within a few  days. I need to go back into the hive early next week to check that the queen did get out. If not, I need to pull out the candy plug and let them out.

To install the bees into the hive, I basically shook them out of the box. It takes a few shakes.

Once most of them are out, I put on my food box (I am feeding them sugar water for awhile so they don't starve) on top of that hive frame box, and then I put on the top of the hive. The purple hive is finished, the yellow hive in the forefront still needs the food box and top added.

I left the hive shipping boxes right in front of the entrances of the hives so any remaining bees that didn't fall out can get out and join their queen and the rest of the ladies inside the hive itself.

At first, it was bee pandemonium. There were bees flying everywhere. They were on my suit, in the air, on the hive, in the hive. Above the hives a black tornado shaped structure of bees formed. Poor Pete was desperate to go into the house, and it was hours before he'd go back outside again. And  they made a lot of noise. It was a fairly loud humming buzz. I wish I had a recording because it was a great sound.

As the day progressed, the bees were settling in. In this above photo you can see the 2 wooden top boards I removed to let the bees out, and you can also see the cans that fit into the entrance hole of the shipping container.  You’ll find them on the ground between the hives. And you see lots of bees too. There are a lot of them sitting on top of the yellow hive.

By evening, they didn't care about their shipping boxes, so I removed those. And life at the hives was a lot quieter on the outside. 

In front of the hives in the bottom of this final  photo you can see my latest garden project. I'm trying to put in some flowering plants but keep it looking a little more natural. I call it my bee garden. Everything I transferred or put in last summer and fall seems to be coming back.  Now I need to fill in some blank spaces.

And the electric fence around the bees is for keeping out skunks and bears.

It ended up being a good day because I was pleased I figured out a workable solution to the damaged packaging. I also got the bees installed. Even though I'd only had bees for one year, I must admit it seemed awfully quiet with empty hives. And with all that bee handling, I didn't get  stung either. Hurrah!

Now let's hope the bees have a great pollen/honey summer ahead. 

Thanks for reading through this long post, and enjoy your weekend.